Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster: 30 Years Later

Monday, Apr 25, 2016

Three decades ago, part of the the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, exploded, killing an estimated 4,000 to 200,000 people in the following decades due to radioactive contamination that spread as far as western Europe.
Today, large portions of the inner and outer Chernobyl Exclusion Zone that together cover 2,600 square kilometers remain contaminated by the radioactive particles that were thrust into the sky.
The former residents of Pripyat and the surrounding areas, through monuments and murals, remember the disaster that changed their lives forever.
Three decades later, international efforts to contain the accident and study its effects continue.
A consortium of western companies is building a movable enclosure called the New Safe Confinement that will cover the reactor remains and its fragile sarcophagus in order to prevent further contamination.